ANKUR AGRAWAL

AIR-65, GATE MECHANICAL 2019

DISCLAIMER- Whatever I am going to write, may or may not work in your favour. Each and every
thing which I have believed, adopted and found suitable during my 2 years of study will be written
here and if you find that it works for you as well then very well and my efforts to write this shall not
go in vain.

For people doing self-study-

As you do not attend any regular coaching class, you don’t know what to study and from where to
study and how much to study. You yourself have to decide, which subject are you going to start and
how will you proceed. I personally do not believe in sequence of completing subjects as anyhow you
have to complete them someday and all have equal importance in GATE because even 0.5 marks
matter.
First and foremost, thing I would suggest is you purchase Made Easy/ Ace Academy hand written
notes from Delhi/Hyderabad market or you can find them online (I will upload 4-5 sets of notes).
These days Exergic Video course is very popular and recommended by rankers (I personally don’t
know). Hand written notes are better than postal study material because it is written by a human
being and will also include some comments made my teacher in the live class that will help you better
to understand topics.
Now after getting notes, you must understand one thing, notes have very limited content only to
satisfy GATE needs, so after seeing the topics if you have time refer some standard books
(mentioned below) to know more about that topic and solve some questions (solved and unsolved)
according to the need and importance of a particular topic.
I am making a subject wise list of books, material I followed-
1) Basic Thermodynamics – Coaching Notes, P.K Nag (solved and unsolved questions chapter
1 to 9 and 11) twice, GATE and ESE-pre previous year questions, ESE-mains questions
(except derivation).

2) Heat Transfer - Coaching Notes, Heat transfer by PK NAG (solved problems of 6 chapters
which are in syllabus), GATE and ESE-pre previous year questions, ESE-mains questions
(keeping in mind the level asked in GATE, specially solve convection problems).

3) Fluid Mechanics – Coaching Notes, Fluid Mechanics by K. SUBRAMANYA (solved examples

are enough and it contains serious conceptual problems you will love it), SK SOM (solved
examples, GATE generally every year gives 1-2 question similar from this book), MADE
EASY CIVIL ENGG. FLUID MECHANICS (I will upload), MODI & SETH (if time permits), GATE
and ESE-pre previous year questions of Mechanical and CIVIL.

4) Strength of Materials – Coaching Notes, GATE and ESE-pre previous year questions of
Mechanical and CIVIL, ESE mains conventional (if you feel concept is still weak).
 5) Theory of Machines – Coaching Notes, SS RATAN (relevant solved examples only), more
time to VIBRATIONS, GATE and ESE-pre previous year questions.

6) Production – Coaching Notes, SK MONDAL Notes, GATE, ESE-pre and ESE-mains (especially
Metal cutting, Casting, Welding).

7) Machine Design – Coaching Notes, VB BHANDARI (no special need but if you have time then
can go through once), Formulas are very important here, GATE and ESE-pre previous year
questions.

8) Industrial Engineering – Coaching Notes, GATE and ESE-pre previous year questions.

9) Engineering Mechanics – Coaching notes, Engg. Mechanics by DR UC JINDAL, GATE previous

year questions.

10) IC Engine and RAC – Coaching Notes, GATE and ESE-pre previous year questions are enough.

11) Power Plant – Coaching Notes, GATE and ESE-mains previous year questions.

12) Material Science – Coaching Notes, GATE and ESE-pre previous year questions.

13) Mathematics – Coaching Notes, Made easy/Ace Academy Maths book, GATE previous year
questions of all branches from past 20 years.

14) General Aptitude – GATE previous questions of all branches, Join Grade up platform for
regular aptitude/reasoning questions which will not let your mind rust.

**Special Note- When you are solving GATE and ESE questions for the first time follow a
strategy. Mark all those questions which you find different from others (in any way), hard, super-
conceptual, questions requiring formulas you find difficult to mug. Do this uniformly throughout the
book. In this way you will filter out number of questions from thousands to hundreds and in last time
(November-January) you will surely be benefitted. An extra thing which I adopted was I used to take
pics of such marked questions and solutions in my phone, made folders of each subject and placed
them accordingly. What this will do is suppose you are travelling, somewhere getting bored then just
skim through these pics and this way the questions and concepts will never die in your mind and will
give you an extra edge.

For people doing regular classroom studies-

You will not have the problem of what, how, where, when to study (I hope). Everything goes same
for you as above just one thing whatever you have studied in class please solve all questions
related to that topic on the very day itself. Do not procrastinate.

TEST SERIES RELATED FAQs

Your course (all the above stated content) must be finished by max October(mid-end). I have taken
approximately 240 subject wise tests and 70 full length tests in the past two years combined.
 • Take at least two test series, my suggestion would be ACE ACADEMY and EXERGIC. Made
Easy test series have been highly unpredictable in the past years. Wait sometime before
deciding. Anyway, you may choose any two between three and third one you can share with
someone so that at least you will know all the important problems.
• November and December must be kept for subject wise, topic wise, multi-topic tests and
after taking tests, retrospect your weakness and work on it.
• January has 31 days and considering 24 full length tests from two test series, take one test
per day and do not break this habit.
• In last 4-5 days, take real GATE papers as mock tests, this will give you confidence and you
will find this test very easy in comparison with Test Series. Believe me it boosts confidence
significantly.
• Attend all three CBT (computer-based test) one from ACE and two from MADE EASY. This will
make you familiar with real GATE environment and nervousness (which is major problem for
a lot of students) can be dealt with this way.
• Make a “Mistake Notes” in which you have to write all the silly, conceptual, formula,
calculation mistakes in your words and your language. The idea is that when you read the
mistake written by you after 1 month, you should get the same feel and same anger which
you got first time when you the mistake. Every mistake must be engraved in your mind.
You must know what blunder making capacity you have and work on them.
• Make many mistakes in each test, no problem. But not same mistake twice, it is the greatest
SIN.
• “Knowing and remembering your mistakes are as important as Knowing and remembering
your formulas.”

Some other important points-

✓ Make Short notes and constantly upgrade them as soon as you come to know something
new. Leave space for such provisions.
✓ Make your short notes look good because a finely written and beautiful (in terms of looks)
matter will be captured in your mind for a longer time. Don’t make dirty and congested
notes as most people do.
✓ In January, make super-short notes. This must contain all those things from short notes
which you cannot remember or tend to forget half or some portion. Refer to this only during
last days as time will be less.
✓ GATE always has elements of surprise, so the Idea must be to solve all kind of questions
every species of problems. Leave no stone unturned. Let nothing shock you.
✓ GATE also tests how much can you remember in a single frame of mind so study in such a
way that at last you will be able to accommodate all the things at one place i.e. your mind.
✓ Be active in Platforms like FB groups, Gradeup. Solve questions posted there regularly and
get your queries solved certainly because doubt and confusion will create chaos in main
exam.
✓ At last during your main exam, do not think of external world, do not think what will happen
when you pass/fail always take one question at a time and try to solve all questions with
utmost concentration. 80% Easy questions are there and these are enough to get you a
decent rank just you have to focus that’s all.
“Be emotional towards questions. If you solve a question correctly you must feel joy and
pride, If you make mistake you must feel sad and furious. That’s the only way to make your
heart and mind work for a common goal.”
THANK YOU.